Living My Life, Through Him and For Him….

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7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes,
with your right hand you save me.

Sometimes I have two very different voices I hear in my head whenever I have trials and tribulations going on in my life.

The first one is the voice of truth; it tells me that God loves me, wants the best for me, and wants to take care of me. It tells me that regardless of how I feel about a situation, I can know — because of promises that God makes over and over again in scripture — that if I just invite God into a situation, God will give me whatever I need to take care of whatever is going on. This voice is the voice of my faith, the voice of truth, and it is where I want to stay all of the time.

BUT

The other voice is the voice of my fear, doubt, and depression. It tells me that nothing good can come from my bad situation, that everything isn’t going to be okay, or that while God could definitely change things if God wanted to, I often doubt that God will.

I am learning, when these voices compete for my attention, that I can change which one I decide to listen to; notice I said “decide”. It becomes an act of will, regardless of feelings, to believe God’s word. I’ve heard that feelings aren’t facts, and in truth, this has been my experience. I have to pray “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”

The part of my faith that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life: Comforter, Counselor, Friend. Jesus told us before he left that he would send us a Helper. As I grown in my faith, I’m learning that the Holy Spirit is the voice of truth that I’m hearing. That other voice is just me, in the flesh. Even when I don’t know how to pray, or what to pray for, I can know that the Holy Spirit is helping me more than I can know.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. Romans 8:26 (NIV)

I Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! !
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period… I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her ‘How could God let something like this happen?’ (regarding Hurricane Katrina).. Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, ‘I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’

In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said okay.

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it…. no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy… “

Jude 24

…as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.

Isaiah 62:5b

I find it tremendously humbling to realise that it is not by anything or anyone else that I can be presented to my Heavenly Father without spot or blemish because of Jesus , and his shedding of blood for my sins…

My whole eternity depends on my recognising the truth that I am a sinner and have sinned against God and yet as long as I ask His forgivness and am cleansed and forgiven He promises me that I will be presented to Him Pure and Blameless.

I am looking forward to that DAY on which I can see my Lord and Saviour , I can gaze upon His wonderful face and know that because of JESUS I am redeemed!!

I will spend eternity with Him.

As long as I walk daily with Him, forgetting not His benefits, I will look forward to knowing that nothing will please Jesus more than to see His bride presented to Him pure and blameless.

Dear Lord, I love you so much, more so, I’m glad that you love me. With all my heart, Thank You.

But you are a shield around me, O Lord; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head (Psalm 3:3).

When problems arise and the cares of this life surround us remember that God is in control. We can stand tall, throw our shoulders back, and hold our heads up in confidence knowing that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Very often, a song rings in my heart. It is a part of Psalm 3:3. “Thou O lord, art a shield about me, you’re my glory and the lifter of my head hallelujah you’re my glory and the lifter of my head.”
It ministers to me at the time I need it most. That is how God works. He meets us where we are. He loves us so much, that He gives us a song or a scripture to encourage us along life’s way.

He truly is the glory and the lifter of our heads!

Right now life is so very good….Lots of things have been happening since I last posted on here but the main thing is: I am falling so much in love with the ONE who has granted me much grace and favour…It really is wonderful. Thank You Jesus

I recall as a young christian, crying out my heart, genuine heartfelt tears before Him, not sure of my future or my hope but He gave me this verse and even today as I write, it still comforts me immensley, knowing He has everything under His control.

He has my:

prodigal children

future ministry (s)

marriage

gifts

everything

All I need to do is pray and trust Him. The rest is already taken care of….

I see God gently moving my life in the direction He knows best and as long as I hold onto every promise He has made concerning all of my concerns, and His word, it will come to pass.

In recent times, I , along with many of my congregation, have seen changes take place, quite painful changes but ones that have made a huge difference in many of our lives. It has made the words of this Psalm so prevalent for today:

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. Psalm 146:3

At the end of the day, there is only one God we can trust and he is not man that He should lie….

And so I press on, trusting in Him for all my concerns. Believing Him when all around me seems utter chaos, and hoping in Him when all I see is nothingness…..